(Feb. 9, 2009) An electronic instrument called a theremin was featured at the CAM Creative Slam last week in the King Center.  The Slam was part of the college’s 10th anniversary celebration, showcasing faculty and student artwork in an evening of diverse and far reaching performances.  The show uncovered creative processes, revealed creative practice and expanded understanding of inspirations.  The event featured an eclectic range of engaging live and taped performances, capturing distinct talents of CAM faculty and students.

Back in the 1920’s Leon Theremin came up with an idea for an instrument where you move one hand closer or farther away and it would to affect the pitch, and then another hand would affect the volume.  Assistant Professor Bryan Leister created a theremin that uses the electrical signal and turns that into midi data.  He feeds that as if it’s a midi instrument into the computer.  Then through the computer he can have the theremin affect the sound and/or video. 

Many in the audience got their first look at a theremin was during an interactive performance featuring Bryan Leister performing  Proximity Politico.   The sound generated was “speech” based on how close he was to the theremin; in this case, he programmed it to be more liberal on the left and more conservative on the right.  During the performance, he judged the audience reaction to have the theremin make more conservative or liberal comments.

The theremin was also showcased in the finale (“Stage Magic”) when students Grant Langdon and Felicia Marti ‘played’ while dancers interacted via the video component to create unique on-screen visuals.  The dancers intermingled with the audience, too, inviting many to come on stage and try their hand at movement and ultimately the theremin.  The student dancers who participated in this piece included Maggie Blumer, Casandra Corrales, Mark Laydon, Amber Moffet and Alexa Perez

Also featured during the performance were:

• Project sequences from the Digital Animation Center’s student production, Bamboo. 
• Scenes from Good Grief – the 7-episode dramedy series that just finished its premiere run on Rocky
• Mountain PBS – also entertained the audience.  It was executive produced, written and directed by Craig Volk.
• Views of one of the college’s iron pours preceded faculty artist statements surrounding “Art is.” The quotes were read by students, including statements from the Artistic Director for the performance, Laura Cuetara read by Amber Moffet, and Assistant professor, Michelle Carpenter, read by Tayla Ealom.  (Hear their quotes by clicking their names.)
• Melissa Furness shared video footage from the inspiration for her Bath paintings that she has created, featuring Hungarian baths.  The footage was interspersed with images of the paintings.
• Pete Ellingson improvised piano music while some of Hans Rosenwinkel’s National Geographic video footage was shown on screen.  Watch here to see the music change as the landscapes transform.  Hans also shared some of his National Geographic video work from his piece on pine beetles.
• The audience got a sneak peek at David Liban’s documentary “Mortal Lessons.”  He introduced the segment noting that his hope is that audiences will see it as “uplifting and hopeful” and that audiences will see that they can “benefit from talking about death.”
• A New Orleans style funeral march from Bill Clark and the Claimjumpers along with a student ensemble of dancers also created a festive atmosphere.